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Storks short on own deliveries in Georgia, Chatham

These big chicks at Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge are part of the largest wood stork rookery in the state. Photo by Mary Ellen Urbanski, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

These three wood stork chicks were banded at Harris Neck. Gawky on land, the birds are graceful in flight. Photo by Mary Ellen Urbanski, U.S. Fish & Wildlie Service

A wood stork pair tends to its chicks at Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge. Photo by Mary Ellen Urbanski, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Wood storks nest in Brooks County. Photo by Tim Keyes, Georgia DNR

Famous in folklore for delivering babies, storks are having a tough time delivering their own offspring this year in Georgia.

About a fifth of the country’s wood storks, an endangered species and the only true stork that breeds in the U.S., use Georgia as their nursery. Their population is slowly increasing, but weather patterns this year mean fewer successful nests than hoped for here. Drought in early spring was followed by heavy rainfall later, said Tim Keyes, a biologist with the Department of Natural Resources.

It was just the opposite of what wood storks need, especially to survive in inland colonies. Storks nest in trees that grow in standing water and rely on alligators as the guardians of their moats. As their chicks grow, the birds benefitfrom a draw down in those pools to concentrate prey and allow these tactile feeders to snap up a nutritious meal with just a few swipes of their beaks.

DNR surveys counted 1,903 wood stork nests across 19 counties in May. That’s down from 2,136 nests last year and 2,696 in 2010, the highest estimate since surveys by air began in the 1990s.

Keyes estimated that average production will be well below one chick per nest. The federal recovery plan for wood storks targets an average of 1.5 chicks per nest.

“Of the colonies we marked, we had about 50 percent of nests abandoned,” Keyes said. “So it has not been a great year. ... But there are still a lot of big chicks that should be fledging soon.”

One bright spot is the rookery at Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge in McIntosh County, where Keyes counted 464 nests. It’s a managed pond, so wildlife officials can regulate its depth. And the birds are close to tidal waters for feeding.

“During the banding operation we see the prey they’re bringing in and it’s all saltwater prey,” said Chris Depkin, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service at Harris Neck.

Sixty-eight chicks were banded this year and stork watchers noted the return of 35 previously banded birds, two of which are more than 17 years old, Depkin said.

Wood storks were listed as endangered when the number of breeding pairs in the Southeast slid to about 5,000 in the late 1970s, down from as many as 20,000 in the 1930s. The decline was blamed on wetland habitat loss and alteration due largely to ditch building in Florida.

Florida’s loss became Georgia’s gain as the birds sought new nesting territory. The first record of wood storks nesting in Georgia was in 1965 on Blackbeard Island. Storks periodically nest at The Landings on Skidaway and on Ossabaw, though no nests were recorded in Chatham County this year.

The gangly, slightly hunched baby storks have a look probably best appreciated by their parents. Related to vultures, the birds get arguably uglier as they mature and lose their head feathers. Keyes suggests taking the long view of these birds and their 5-foot wingspan.

“From great distance when they’re soaring they’re quite graceful,” he said. “They’re one of those birds that the farther away you get the better they look.”

HOW TO HELP

Georgia DNR’s Nongame Conservation Section works to conserve wood storks and Georgia’s other rare and endangered animals and native plants. Yet the agency receives no state general funds, depending instead on fundraisers, grants and donations.

Help by purchasing or renewing wildlife license plates featuring a bald eagle or a ruby-throated hummingbird. Also, contribute directly to the Georgia Wildlife Conservation Fund. These programs support the agency and conservation of wildlife not legally fished for, hunted or collected.

Details: www.georgiawildlife.org/conservation or 478-994-1438

WOOD STORKS ARE

• Large, white, bald-headed wading birds of Southeastern swamps.

• Often spotted soaring on thermal drafts or gliding to feeding sites.

• Adults range from about 33 to 45 inches tall, with a wingspan of 59 to 69 inches.

• The nesting season runs from April into July. Many storks that nest in Georgia migrate to Florida for the winter.

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